FEBRUARY • 7-9 • 2014

S P E C I A L S U P P L E M E N T O F T H E

Dhaka Art Summit

Inside2 Interview with Tayeba Begum Lipi and Ronni Ahmed3 The South Asian scene4 Interview with photographer Shahidul Alam5 Lifeblood: Bangladeshi Photography6 Liberty: Bangladeshi Modern and Contemporary Art

7 Interview with painter Monirul Islam 8-9 The Exhibitionists10-12 Solo Projects 13 The Samdani Award14-15 Meet the Curators: Diana Belencourt Mahbubur Rahman

Schedule Friday, February 710 am – 7pm (VIP pass holders) Saturday, February 8 11 am – 7 pm (free to the public)Sunday, February 9 (free to the public)General Hours: 10 am – 7 pm

Venue Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy14/3 Shegunbagicha, RamnaDhaka 1000

From Mahbubur Rahman’s exhibition

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This is the second Dhaka Art summit. How does it compare to the first summit?

LBL: The first time was much smaller than this. They were not experienced organisers before, but it’s safe to say now they are. It also helps that they are genuine art lovers, so it’s beginning to look like such events come easily to them.

RA: It’ll be better than the last time. This time it’s being done on a grand scale. There is going to be an exchange of art and ideas, along with important curators and galleries coming. So by scaling up they have really pushed the envelope. This summit is changing the whole landscape of art in Bangladesh and pushing it years ahead.

What work are you displaying?LBL: At the last summit I created

a large bed made out of razor blades. This time around I’m doing something different. I wanted to trace the journey related to my own body. I had a miscarriage and had to go through a lot because of that. I used that journey as the inspiration behind my installation “A Room of My Own.”

RA: I’m just giving a few paintings this time around, not like my umbrella installation last year. They were selected by Deepak Ananth who is curating the exhibition B/Desh.

Did last year’s summit help you out professionally?

LBL: Of course it did. So many people came and saw my work

and then became interested in it. Subsequently one of my pieces was auctioned at Christies in London. The Guggenheim also acquired my piece from the last art summit, and it is now being shown around the world.

RA: Yes, in fact it helped me out a lot. My work was praised by critics – even by one from Paris who often curates Shahabuddin’s work.

Do you think this summit will help new artists, or is it a showcase of already established acts?

LBL: That’s a difficult question to answer. If you go through their stuff you’ll see they have incorporated established artists as an attraction for the summit. But there is also a Samdani Award for the best up-and- coming artists. So I’d say there is a bit of both. Mahbubur Rahman is showcasing a number of new artists in the film and performance category, so I would say they will have a voice at this summit.

RA: Every organization has its own agenda, and through their work they

encourage others. It’s an organic process. That being said, I think the summit will help many people in many ways.

Where do you hope to see this summit in 10 years?

LBL: Truthfully I am a little worried about the future. The organisers have put a lot of their own money into this summit, but if they don’t have sponsors helping them out in the future, how tenable will it be? Other people need to step in and help them out. It’s only natural that people get tired, so in my mind the sustainability of this project may require others to assist them.

RA: It’s already touching the sky. I’d say in 10 years I’d like to see people like Anish Kapoor here in Dhaka. A big substantial art event certainly positively affects the aesthetics of the existing art arena. The Dhaka Arts Summit has its own international contemporary voice, which must affect Bangladesh’s art in the future.

A grand step forwardTayeba Begum Lipi and Ronni Ahmed participated in the first Dhaka Art Summit in 2012. Both have had considerable international success since then. Dhaka Tribune’s Nader Rahman caught up with these superstar DAS alumni.

The South Asian scene

B/Desh: Emerging Bangladeshi Contemporary Art

Curated by Deepak Ananth Venue: 2nd FloorB/DESH, a shorthand for

Bangladesh, of course, but also, bidesh, the Bangla word for abroad, a foreign land, an extraterritorial elsewhere. Desh, on the other hand, designates a homeland, accompanied by a sense or semblance of a national identity, however notional or real. So the home and the world are conjoined and separated by the most tenuous of lexical and phonetic expedients: the slender slash differentiating desh and bidesh that could also be seen as a marker of everything that lies between them.

Participating Artists: Ayesha Sultana Gazi Nafis Ahmed Naeem Mohaiemen Omar Adnan Chowdhury Rana Begum Ronni Ahmed Shumon Ahmed

This year’s Dhaka Art Summit features five curated exhibitions: B/Desh, Citizens of Time, Ex-Ist, Liberty, and LifeBlood. The collections include work by artists, photographers and filmmakers from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. They were selected by renowned and emerging curators and art critics from South Asia.

Citizens of Time: Indian Contemporary Art

Curated by: Veeranganakumari Solanki

Venue: 1st floorThe artists list proposed for this

exhibition is comprised of those artists who work with aspects of the universal border of time. These artists explore the variables of time while realising the crucial association of the audience engaging with the space and the works. The works they create will translate the impermanence of time. The ‘Citizens of Time’ are divided into four time pockets – the residue of time through natural elements, memory traps from spaces and personal environments, translated time maps of imagination and mind-narratives of distorted time.

Participating Artists: Hemali Bhuta Remen Chopra Baptist Coelho Vibha Galhotra Nandan Ghiya Sonia Jose Manjunath Kamath Riyas Komu Nandita Kumar Ritesh Meshram Prajakta Potnis Gigi Scaria Kartik Sood Kiran Subbaiah

Ex-Ist: Emerging Pakistani Contemporary Art

Curated by: Ambereen Karamat Venue: 1st Floor‘Ex-ist’ is the experience of

following an unconscious road map of one’s everyday life, enveloped in various images. Our gaze has to wander over the surface of the images, feeling its way, following the complex path of the image’s structure on one hand and the observer’s intention on the other. Just glancing at an image casts a magic spell on our and the nature of the still image transforms it from a single image into moving scenes in our minds. Our lives are filtered through these magical images; they act as screens between man and the world, allowing human beings to ‘ex-ist’.

Participating Artists: Sajjad Ahmed Farida Batool Amber Hammad Aroosa Rana Wardah Shabbir Mohammad Zeeshan

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Lipi’s solo project for the Dhaka Art Summit, A Room of My Own, inspired by the texts of Virginia Woolf, provides context for the artist’s previous body of work, sharing the artist’s silent journey over the years, fighting her own body and soul in the wish to conceive a child. Lipi takes chronological steps into the special times of her life, sharing black and white photos taken at the time.

CURATED EXHIBITIONINTERVIEW

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Curator Rosa Maria Falvo tells the Dhaka Tribune’s Ishrat Jahan:

I met Shahidul Alam in July 2007, in the middle of the monsoon, when I came to Dhaka for the first time to look for art and learn about what was going on in the art scene in Bangladesh. We immediately felt a true connection, as I listened to him talk and saw his photographs at Drik, and the poignant work of his students and colleagues; and several artists, young and old, painters and printmakers, the masters and the emerging. I went back in the dry season and as Shahidul walked me through the streets of Dhaka in 2008, with his trusty bicycle by his side, amid the infernal traffic, I spontaneously whispered: “We have to do a beautiful book of your work, to get this photography movement and all the creative dynamism here known to the world. Three years later I was there again to birth Shahidul’s book in September 2011, and I also curated a show of his work in London at the Wilmotte Gallery in December 2011, and the rest is history... Over the last 7 years I have spent time (in Dhaka and Chittagong) with artists and their families, in their homes and studios, with academics, poets, musicians, gallerists, collectors, and government

officials, craftspeople, saintly taxi drivers, and tireless rickshaw wallahs; I listened to the many Bangladeshi stories, often intimate, courageous, triumphant and inspiring, which the West had not heard and is only now beginning to envisage. Alongside the mission of the Bengal Foundation, I have been writing and working hard

to promote Bangladeshi visual artists all over the world ever since. This particular show was born from my foundational work on photography in Bangladesh and my relationship with Nadia and Rajeeb Samdani, with whom I share a vision for South Asian art.

Shahidul Alam: The revolution will be photographed Dhaka Tribune’s Punny Kabir sits down with the legendary photographer, whose work is featured in the LifeBlood exhibition at DAS, to examine the evolving place of photography in the Bangladesh and the world

Ace Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam has made an immeasurable contribution to photography in the country. He is the founder of Pathshala South Asian Institute of Photography, as well as Drik Picture Library, which is exhibiting at Dhaka Art Summit. He is also a director of Chhobi Mela, Asia’s

largest photography festival.Shahidul’s work has been shown

at leading museums and galleries worldwide, such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, The Georges Pompidou Centre in Paris, The Tehran Museum of Contemporary Arts in Iran, the National Art Gallery in Malaysia, and the Tate Modern in Britain.

How does the international fraternity see Bangladesh?

It is surprising that Bangladesh, not known for excellence in many things, is now known as having one of the finest schools of photography

in the world today. Photographers from all over feel that at some point of their life, they need to come to Bangladesh.

An intense photographic movement is going on here. We started Chhobi Mela in 2000, which was the first photography festival in Asia. Later China, Singapore,

India and other nations followed us. Photographers from all around the world are looking at the photographers of Bangladesh on a regular basis.

But ironically they are not recognised in their own land.

Is there is still a distinction between art and photography?

Whether something is an artform or not is a pretty meaningless question. The mode of production does not constitute art. The question is: What is being produced. An artist is a person who can elevate his work to a certain aesthetic level.

The question of “Is photography art?” did come up at a particular stage because photography includes photomechanical reproduction, and therefore … is not a unique product. But in most of the parts of the world, people moved far from that debate.

Is that also true in Bangladesh?The question still prevails in

Bangladesh because we don’t have an audience who is sufficiently aware of visual art, or are knowledgeable about photography. There are no photography critics. People who have written about the arts were almost illiterate about photography. The aesthetic background to develop photography as an artform was absent for long time.

We have a ridiculous situation here in Bangladesh. In the last Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh in 2012, photography was not allowed to participate.

When did that change in other parts of the world?

The transformation is not very old. In Europe, about 30 years ago photography began to be included in mainstream art. In North America, it was much earlier. The history varies from region to region.

What is causing us to lag behind? We are stuck with some common

modes of art. There is also a lack of social understanding about visual literacy.

At the Faculty of Fine Art (Charukala), photography has not yet been included as a subject. That a 21st century art institute is not practicing photography is simply unbelievable. No public university or institute is teaching photography. In Shilpakala Academy, a bill was passed in 1985 to create a department of photography at the academy. That has not yet happened.

I want to add another perspective: There are a few people who are protective about their territory or comfort zone. They don’t understand one of the most thriving modes of art in today’s world, and they feel threatened to include it.

What changes do we need to bring in order to make photography a part of the mainstream art?

From the gatekeepers, to media, to writers, to audience – it needs a revolution and it is taking place.

Dhaka Art Summit is a very good example as it could do something that Shilpakala Academy has not been able to do in so many years. In the previous DAS, the grand award was won by a photographer.

Tell us about your work that is participating in the Dhaka Art Summit 2014

It is [a series] on the river Brahmaputra. Following the river from its source to where it meets in the Bay of Bengal took three and a half years. I started near Kailash and followed it all the way through China, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Bangladesh.

Why did you choose the Brahmaputra?

The Brahmaputra in monsoon becomes 18km wide. It is unimaginable for a river. Bangladesh is about rivers. That’s what impacts Bangaldeshi life the most. Getting to know the river is, in a way, getting to know the country.

Note: Shahidul Alam will also be speaking on February 8, 2-3:30pm at Pioneer Panel: Firsthand Perspectives on Developing Infrastructure for Contemporary Art in South Asia and its Challenges and Breakthroughs

LifeBlood: Bangladeshi Photography

Curated by: Rosa Maria Falvo Venue: 3rd FloorThis exhibition aims to present various angles on Bangladesh’s unique relationship with water, and the palpable and often precarious existence of living in and around the water’s edge.

Participating Artists:

Abir Abdullah Shahidul Alam Rasel Chowdhury Khaled Hasan Saiful Huq Omi Manir Mrittik Munem Wasif

CURATED EXHIBITIONINTERVIEW

Shahidul Alam

Abir Abdullah

Khaled Hasan

Munem Wasif

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In conversation with artist Monirul IslamDhaka Tribune’s Tasnuva Amin Nova sat down with the septuagenarian painter Monirul Islam, whose work is featured in the Liberty exhibition at DAS

A resident of Madrid, Spain, Monirul’s most notable awards include two national awards of Spain (1993 and 1997), Ekushey Padak (1999), the national award of Bangladesh (2007), and most recently, the “Cross of officer of the order queen Isabella” (2010). Over his illustrious career of more

than 50 fifty years as an artist, this maestro has held more than 30 solo exhibitions and conducted numerous workshops in various cities of the world.

So what brings you to Bangladesh?I would be lying if I said it is solely my patriotism.

Painting is my source of income and it is through this that I have to survive. The economic conditions in Spain are not very good, so I am working here for a while. I am not sure how long Bangladesh can maintain such economic growth, because of the political instability. I will be leaving for Spain soon after finishing my work here.

What is your source of inspiration? I have a practice book where I lay out the virgin

image but I never copy any image. I have to make hundreds of images and select a few from there. There is no inspiration now. Sometimes I have to destroy my own image to create a new image from it.

Art is more powerful than the artist. I have

paintings scattered all around me. If I am stuck somewhere I let it be. Art grows by itself; it just needs a lot of attention.

Tell us about the signature elements you use in your paintings.

For paintings I use oxide colors, smoked black, different types of soil, coffee, dust, brick dusk, charcoal, ground rice and natural pigments. These last for a lifetime as opposed to the standardised colors they sell in markets today. I work on corrugated boxes, canvases and also the back of sweet cartons (grey boards). I also make my own paper in Spain. There are many naturally rich materials found in our country. You just need to know how and where to use them.

I also use a lot of open space in my images so

that they do not appear clumsy or overworked. Art should be universal and futuristic. An artist

should illustrate something that has never been seen before.

Most of your images are abstract. How should the spectator interpret them?

Interpreting art should be subjective. I can paint a rose but how will I give it the essence? You create your own language through art. I don’t wait for people to understand art. Everyone has some innate sense of art that comes alive by looking at images.

What is your take on the art market in Bangladesh?

Today, Bangladesh is a very good market for art, but it is artificial. Like I said earlier, demand for art is largely dependent on the economy. As our economy is growing, we see more art galleries being built. Demand has been boosted mostly because of the educated wealthy, but art is still a luxury for the masses in here.

Did you always want to become an artist?I am still trying to become an artist. I have had a

sleeping desire to be one since my childhood, but until I joined Charukala, I did not know anything about the arts. Though I learned the nitty-gritty of painting from my teachers, I still believe that no school can make you an artist if you don’t have it in you.

Globally, what form of art is trending? Every culture has something new to offer to the

world and that should be highlighted through art. Art across the world is becoming more

globalised, and more Euro-centric. In art colleges, even in our country, students are taught European styles and techniques. I don’t like this, but thanks to the Internet, it is inevitable.

Another new trend, which I like, is installations. It reflects that every form of presentation is art, even the way you put out an ash tray. I call it innovative art.

How do you feel about Dhaka Art Summit?Samdani is doing a phenomenal job of bringing

local and international artists together through the summit. In fact, I believe the private sector is doing exceptionally well, compared to the government sector, in promoting Bangladeshi arts, including the setting up of state-of-the-art galleries.

The exposure that local artists will get through the summit will hopefully increase the demand for Bangladeshi art in the international market.

Liberty: Bangladeshi Modern and Contemporary Art

Curated by: Md Muniruzzaman, Assisted by Takir Hossain Venue: 1st Floor

The word Liberty brings to mind images of 1971, but there is more to the concept, which articulates a wide range of emotions, and helps visualise freedom, sovereignty and free thought. Liberty showcases the political, social and economic circumstance of Bangladesh.

Curator Md Muniruzzaman tells the Dhaka Tribune’s Ishrat Jahan:

When the country faced a crisis, artists always liberally express their thoughts and people’s rights, and were in favour of establishing democracy and secularism in our society.

This exhibition includes the artworks of the first generation of artists in Bangladesh, some who were

involved with the establishment of the art college in Dhaka in 1948.

The exhibition is also comprised of the artworks of painters from mid 1960s era, who were greatly influenced by abstract expressionism, lyrical abstraction, pure abstraction and non-figuration. Thus the present accomplishments of Bangladeshi art owes a lot to internationally prominent Abstract Expressionists

like Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Franz Kline and Adolph Gottlieb. They paved the way towards liberalisation.

The exhibition also includes artists of the ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s, which were significant times for the painters in Bangladesh. One can feel the essence of the political turmoil during that era in their artworks.

CURATED EXHIBITION INTERVIEW

Kalidas Karmokar

Kanak Champa ChakmaMohmed Iqbal

Participating Artists:

Abdul Mannan Abdus Shakoor Shah Abu Taher Ahmed Nazir Ahmed Shamsuddoha Aloptogin Tushar Anisuzzaman Atia islam Anne Biren Shome Chandra Shekhar Dey Farida Zaman Golam Faruque Bebul Hamiduzzaman Khan Hritendra Kumar Sharma Jamal Ahmed K. M. A. Quayyum Kalidas Karmakar Kanak Chanpa Chakma Khalid Mahamood Mithu Maksuda Iqbal Nipa Mohammad Iqbal Mohammad Eunus

Monirul Islam Monsurul Karim Mostafizul Haque Nasim Ahmed Nadvi Nasreen Begum Nazlee Laila Mansur Nisar Hossain Ranjit Das Rasid Amin Rokeya Sultana Sahid Kabir Saidul Haque Juise Samarjit Roy Chowdhury Sawpan Chowdhury Shahabuddin Ahmed Sheikh Afzal Hossain Shishir Bhattacharjee Syed Abul Barq Alvi Syed Jahangir Tasadduk Hossain Dulu Wakilur Rahman Zahura Sultana Hossain

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Wealthy Art CollectorWho says you can’t buy taste.

The Artist LookalikeWith long hair and an unusual look, he grabs the attention of everyone around him with people often confusing him for the artist much to the chagrin of the actual artist.

The Senior ArtistJealous by nature, nothing is ever good enough for them and they hate it when the newbies get all the attention.

Random PassersbyThey’ll only come by to use to the bathroom.

Desperate CoupleAfter not fi nding a place to neck, they can at least hold hands and take pictures without being gawked at.

The CelebrityShe is only dragged to an exhibition to create some buzz. Nothing more, nothing less.

The ArtistGenerally normal looking, but frustrated by attention everyone seems to be getting rather than him.

Wealthy Art CollectorWho says you can’t buy taste.

The ChildThe most honest person in the room who sees through the pretensions. He says it like he sees it.

Art CriticThe ultimate outsider assumes the pose of Rodin’s The Thinker in front of every painting, hoping someone will ask his opinion.

Gallery ManagerHer only job seems to be to try to convince the rich art collector that her 30% commission is as worthwhile as she says it is.

The JournalistLet’s be honest, they only come for the food.

The IntellectualsA red teep for the ladies and a shawl for men no matter what time of the year it is. Everything has artistic value for them even a half-eaten apple.

The Artist LookalikeWith long hair and an unusual look, he grabs the attention of everyone around him with people often confusing him for the artist much to the chagrin of the actual artist.

The Exhibitionists The 12 types of people you will meet at every art show

Concept and drawing: Syed Rashad Imam TANMOYText: Nader Rahman

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Rana Begum

Begum was born in Sylhet, Bangladesh in 1977 and moved to England in 1985. The artist studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Chelsea College of Art and Design in London where she currently lives and works. She has exhibited extensively internationally including exhibitions in the UK, the USA, Mumbai, Beirut, and Dubai, and she was the recipient of the 2012 Jack Goldhill Award for Sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts and nominated for the Jameel Prize at the V&A in 2010.

In her first major exhibition in Dhaka, Begum moves away from surface ideas of mass-production and brings focus to the handmade. Begum revisits her childhood fascination with basket weaving, an activity she enjoyed when growing up in Bangladesh. Using these vivid childhood memories as inspiration, Begum transforms the Shilpakala Academy with over a thousand locally woven baskets, which she weaves together to create a monumental sculptural dome that references light in the Koran. The work immerses the viewer in an innovative play between light and shadow. The complex intricate pattern creates a weightless and contemplative space through repetition.

Shazia Sikander

Sikander’s pioneering and innovative work led to her meteoric rise internationally in the mid and late nineties, with survey shows at the Renaissance Society and the Kemper (1998), the Hirshhorn (1999), and a solo at the Whitney (2000). in Pakistan.

This is a parallax: two views of the same thing that are fundamentally incompatible and nevertheless real. The parallax gap is the space between these two forms, the very substance of their incommensurability. Slavoj Zizek’s assertion that the parallax Real “pulverizes the

sameness into a multitude of appearances” is at the heart of Sikander’s current practice.

Created in 2013 for the Sharjah Biennial, Parallax is a multi-channel video work made primarily from her own paintings, with music and poetry that Sikander produced in collaboration with the composer Du Yun and the participation of three poets from Sharjah.

Rashid Rana

Rashid Rana is one of the most important Pakistani artists of his generation. He is the head of Fine Art Department and one of the founding faculty members of the School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD) at the Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. His work is in the permanent collections of the Asia Society, Devi Art Foundation, the Queensland Art Museum, the Fukuoka Museum of Asian Art, and many other distinguished public and private collections around the world.

For Rashid Rana’s solo project A Room from Tate Modern (2013-2014), viewers will be looking at a three-dimensional photograph of a room

at Tate Modern. The work is based on photo documentation of a room at Tate Modern, made to look empty with the works of art eliminated, but with spotlight effects and remnants of labels and wall-texts of works that make the viewer imagine what could have previously hung there. The view of doors that open into adjacent gallery spaces will create an illusion that the walls extend into new dimensions. At its formal core, this work is about the conflict between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional.

Tsherin Sherpa

Nepalese Painter Tsherin Sherpa has created three new paintings that explore the relationship between Tibetan tradition and identity in the 21st century for the Dhaka Art Summit. His work has been exhibited extensively internationally, including the landmark exhibition at the Rubin Museum in New York, Tradition

Born in Kathmandu to a Tibetan Buddhist family in 1968, Sherpa apprenticed with his father Master Urgen Dorje Sherpa in the traditional thangka painting tradition. Sherpa’s practice has preserved the meticulous detail of the canonical thangka but his figures are distilled from the structured, underlying grid systems and symbols that bring the traditional deity’s form to life. In recent years his emphasis has shifted from traditional subjects to more contemporary concerns, including imagining what traditional Tibetan spirits would now look like if they too had left Tibet.

Then | Why NotCurator Diana Campbell Betancourt says:

These solo projects are fourteen monographic exhibitions by South Asian artists from around the world. All have subtle but direct connections to the context of Bangladesh.

Another characteristic these projects and artists have in common is that they demand the impossible: their defiance of constraints imposed on creativity, their fearless approach to expressing themselves in the context of South Asia, and their daring acceptance of an unprecedented challenge of being part of a South Asian dedicated event within South Asia, in the midst of its current political realities.

Naeem Mohaiemen

Naeem Mohaiemen’s poignant new commission, titled Shokol Choritro Kalponic (Bangla for “All characters are imaginary,” a disclaimer shown before many television drama series), will transport the audience to the artist’s idea of a utopian future of Bangladesh in 2024. His work takes the form of a single-issue newspaper containing fictional news items which talk about things that we wished would have happened in reality.

The full title of the newspaper is “Shokol Choritro Kalponic.” This 8-page issue includes imagery reminiscent of the style of newsprint

in the 1970s. The stories in this newspaper are

so surreal that they make the reader think: “I know this is not possible in this world.” For instance, a headline of this satirical piece reads: “Indians Protest Smuggling of Cows from Bangladesh.”

The newspaper will be published in Bangla and distributed for free to all visitors at the DAS.

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Asim Waqif

Asim Waqif has been interested in different forms of protest in his work, and he challenges the public to question the often-ridiculous rules imposed by societies and governments. He has exhibited extensively internationally, including a solo exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo and at Mumbai’s Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum in their project space, and will be a part of the 5th Marrakech Biennale

His solo project uses cane, rope, and thousands of helium-filled balloons. Waqif creates a levitating sculpture that, upon closer view, reads “No Fly Zone.” Waqif will set this work loose to fly across Dhaka on the first day of the Dhaka Art Summit (February 7), subverting the control that the sculpture, and political forces, attempt to assert over the public.

Adding more irony to the work, the artist and public will cease to have full “control” over the work once it is let loose in the sky. Volunteers and visitors who arrive to the venue on motor bikes will be instructed to draw attention to the floating installation by blowing their horns in unison, pointing toward the sky, an asking passers-by to see what is in the sky. “It’s a bird…it’s a plane…no, it’s an artwork!”

Jitish Kallat

Kallat’s works have often been described as distilled, poetic investigations of the cycle of life, interlacing several autobiographical, art-historical, political and celestial references.

His work has been exhibited widely at museums and institutions including National Gallery of Modern Art (Mumbai), Tate Modern and Tate Britain (London), Martin

Gropius Bau (Berlin), Serpentine Gallery (London), Mori Art Museum (Tokyo), Centre Pompidou (Paris), and the Art Institute of Chicago.

At the Dhaka Art Summit, Kallat’s solo project invites viewers to find themselves within the work, placing the viewer between night and day, and between immediate and eternal. His internationally acclaimed 2011 work Epilogue explores the 753 moon cycles that Kallat’s father experienced in his lifetime using 22,500 photographs of

moons that were made of roti in various states of being eaten.

Moon cycles are endless, and in the seven channel animated video Breath, presented here, the viewer can think of themselves within the infinite cycles that comprise the universe through the waxing and waning roti “moons Breath contextualizes viewers within the universe and compels them think about time, life, death, and the relationships forged during one’s lifespan.

SOLO PROJECTS SAMDANI ART AWARD

The Samdani Art Award, which will be awarded at the Dhaka Art Summit, is the most prestigious art award in Bangladesh. The competition is for Bangladesh’s 20-40-year-old emerging contemporary artists; the award is presented bi-annually.

It is also supported by the London-based Delfina Foundation, a non-profit organisation that promotes cross-cultural dialogue and artistic experimentation – through residencies, partnerships and public programming.

Ten artists have been nominated from a variety of eclectic backgrounds. The international judging panel, who will decide the finalist, is chaired by: Aaron Cezar of the Delfina Foundation, the independent curator Adriano Pedrosa, Jessica Morgan of the Tate Modern, Pooja Sood of Khoj

International Artists’ Association, and Sandhini Poddar of the Guggenheim Museum.

The winners of the Samdani Art Award 2012 were Khaled Hasan and Musrat Reazi. The nominations for this year are listed below.

• Afsana Sharmin Zhumpa • Ayesha Sultana • Kabir Ahmed Masum Chisty • Palash Bhattacharjee • Promotesh Das Pulak • Sanjoy Chakraborty • Sarker Protick • Shumon Ahmed • Syed Tareq Rahman • Yasmin Jahan Nupur

Shumon AhmedMy artwork is an homage to

my mother who is intellectually challenged. She was born premature and has been discriminated all her life – even by me. I am trying to be her voice, her medium – one she never had because no one would listen to her. So this installation will include letters, recordings of phone conversations with her, songs and poems. This work has been inspired by my shame, guilt and sadness about how I, along with the rest of society, have treated her.

Yasmin Jahan NupurMy main work is text-based, and

the medium I use is Jamdani fabric. I collected text-based fabric from my mother’s generation, and since we don’t find these things anymore, I made some myself. However, while making it, I realized the difference between the text then and the text

now. It appears that back then the text used was very personal, related to one’s family life. But today, when I did a similar work, the text was political – which I believe is an influence of our surroundings. So a large focus of my exhibition is the contrast between the text then, and the text now.

Ayesha SultanaArt is a necessity, I feel. So

there are mixed emotions when I am working: agony, frustration, nervousness, pleasure. Uncertainty. It’s a form of healing. My work is an attempt to bring in an area of the void, to operate in the mind or manifest itself over time when it is no longer visible. The three stitched pieces are part of an ongoing series that I began a year ago. The motivation behind the making can result from multiple acts of paying attention and hopefully cultivate forms of listening. 

Sarker Protick[My work at DAS] is about my

grandparents who are living a lonely life, and whose despair is very difficult for someone of my age to understand. That’s what my exhibition is about. Art is a very personal work for me. I think it’s the experience that matters to me most. I am a photographer, and that requires me to be on the move, demands my presence in a particular situation. I find this sense of immediacy, the intimacy very exhilarating.

Kabir Ahmed Masum ChistyI am exhibiting a public art

project at DAS that captures the essence of the quintessential Bangla movie poster. I incorporate a mixture of various forms of media in my work. If it is a poster of someone riding a bike, then you will see the illusion of only the wheels turning; that’s how different the animation is. The reason I used the typical characters of Bangla movies like a mother, hero, heroine and a villain is because I believe that in real life too, we have such characters. We ourselves play different roles during different times. I believe that there is an angel and a villain all within me, each of us. These posters are mirrors reflecting that spirituality.

D H A K A A RT S U M M I T | D H A K A T R I B U N E FEBRUARY 7-9 D H A K A A RT S U M M I T | D H A K A T R I B U N E FEBRUARY 7-9

14 15INTERVIEW INTERVIEWDIANA CAMpBEll BETANCoURT MAHBUBUR RAHMAN

Diana Campbell Betancourt, Artistic Director of the Samdani Art Foundation, is curating the Dhaka Art Summit. She also co-curated “Energy Plus,” the Mumbai City Pavilion for the 9th Shanghai Biennale, among several other projects. She writes for Frieze, Vogue, Architectural Digest, Harper’s Bazaar, and the Journal of Curatorial Studies and has presented her work at numerous institutions including the Tate Modern, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and InstitutoInhotim.

How did you get started with arts?My first memory is from when I was

four. My parents took me to the Getty Villa in Malibu where an oil magnate had an amazing art collection. I loved it and told my parents they had to move in there. It was from that moment that I knew I had to have some sort of engagement with museums.

I studied classical ballet for 15 years and didn’t want to go to college, but luckily I did my studies and went to Princeton. My parents wanted me to be a banker so I studied economics, finance and Chinese and also worked at an art museum. My first job was at JP Morgan and I was very lucky because I wouldn’t have been here if it wasn’t for that job. When I joined they were launching coverage on Sotheby’s. Since Sotheby’s for the business world was not a big enough stock and I had some art background, I was assigned to deal with it. I was

only 22 then and I wrote the initiation report and did the stock valuation, which was kind of scary.

I would have lunch with the CEO and CFO of Sotheby’s all the time and would tell them how much I hated my job, and eventually joined Sotheby’s.

How has your experience here in Dhaka been so far?

I had a moment today when I realized how different it is being a curator in South Asia and being one in the west. Apart from doing the research and putting together the concept, here you also have to make sure every layer of paint on the wall has been put on correctly, the pictures framed correctly and so on. And when the artists get nervous you have to reassure them so it’s everything from being their banker, psychologist, logistics manager – it’s really an all-encompassing role.

Is this specific to South Asia?I think so because the

differentiation of role that exists elsewhere is not present here, for instance there is not a registrar to deal with the shipping and the paperwork, there is not an exhibitions department that does the framing. The Samdanis are trying to get there which is great but it will take time.

What’s the reason for this difference in approach towards how things are done, in spite of South Asia having a rich tradition of art?

It could be economic. No one here will pay a livable wage to be on staff full time to figure out framing and designing things. If you have a frame shop and you know that you are going to get business all the time, that’s different but this idea of having someone on staff all the time with the right expertise doesn’t really exist here. I’ve been very lucky as a curator but people that keep full time curators are also very limited. There should be more curatorial training programmes, but then who will these guys work for?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art for instance gets enormous donations from former Mayor Bloomberg. Does a similar culture not exist in South Asia in spite of there being a lot of billionaires? Are they not interested in funding and promoting art?

It’s unfortunate but that culture doesn’t exist here yet. There are certain people who try to do things,

but it’s not like in New York where Bloomberg knows what they are doing and gives them money for that. Hopefully that will change in the future.

What are some of the other challenges of having the art summit in Dhaka?

It is very difficult to organise such an event here because of the extremely high import customs and visa issues. It would be much easier to organize an exhibition of artists from America or UK than with artists from Myanmar, India or Pakistan.

It’s especially hard for artists from Pakistan because of what happened recently. The customs don’t really understand what contemporary art is, so I handcarried about 90kg worth of stuff here 2 days ago - I am kind of a human mule, and the artists are having to do the same.

Here in Bangladesh the constraint is what is available in Dhaka, not the money. You can have all the money in the world but you can’t get what you need to Dhaka.

Since we don’t really have an established gallery system in Bangladesh, what selection mechanism did you use for picking artists for DAS?

We selected artists from South Asia who I thought were interesting and whose work had something relevant to the context of Bangladesh. There are only two artists in it who live in Bangladesh, the rest are from all over the world. I also tried to have an equal balance of men and women, and a wide variety of practices. I tried to cover the ground of what’s happening in terms of art practice in South Asia. They have all exhibited internationally and I was familiar with their art and have worked with a lot of them before.

They all have a lot of different ideas and it’s hard to control the creative process. Someone might get an idea at 4am after you have already ordered all the materials and ask for a new room. People think being a curator is a glamorous job – it really isn’t.

I think a lot of people here don’t really have a clear idea of the distinction between an artist and a curator. The role of a curator also changes over time. How would you explain it to a layman?

A curator helps put an artist’s ideas into a bigger picture – that’s how I

would describe it. I guess how my practice is different from some of the other curators is that I usually focus on helping the artists give birth to work and have a behind the scenes role. It’s important to make sure a curator does not overstep the boundary and influence the artist’s work too much, but at the same time the curator can sometimes see what the artist may not see and help guide them in that direction.

In the context of Dhaka, what is your approach for the audience?

Most of the people coming to the Dhaka Art Summit have never seen art like this. I have simplified my text so it’s not crazy art speak. The newspaper project is all in Bangla, and tries to use the local language in creative way. The other thing is having really clear maps and visual signage. There is also an educational aspect of the exhibition so on Sunday we have a school day and 200 kids are coming and I hope to make small texts for the kids and hang them around the wall so the kids can see them.

Speaking of crazy art speak, a lot of people here are not usually exposed to modern art which is often obscure and open to interpretation, so how do you go about making it accessible and understandable?

There is a really cheesy quote but one that I stand by – if you are excellent you are accessible. So if something is really good you will be able to understand it. People have been making cave paintings for ages. So I think art is part of our social make up and people can understand it better the more they see it.

What do you plan to do next with the Samdanis after the Dhaka Art Summit?

I just accepted Rajiv’s offer to be the director of his foundation. Something I see in India that I don’t like is all these institutions are run by one very powerful person who has a lot of influence which is a problem because it’s hard to be neutral. So the first thing I am going to do is build a global advisory board for the Samdani Foundation. We’re flying in the most influential curators in the world to Dhaka, to find out which ones we can collaborate with. It’s a work in progress.

Mahbubur Rahman is a renowned artist and curator, and the Honorary Artistic Director of the Britto Arts Trust, an artist-run Dhaka based non-profit platform. He completed his MFA from Dhaka University in 1993, and in his career spanning more than two decades, he has held 12 solo shows in Europe, the USA and Asia. His video work “The City Gate” was exhibited at the Cinema Reflet Medicis, Paris, 2009; Reina Sofia National Museum, Madrid, 2010; and at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2010. Rahman has also exhibited at two-person shows such as Parables of our Times, Gallery Akar Prakar, Kolkata, 2010; Artificial Reality, La Galerie, Alliance Française Dhaka, 2002; and Slave of the Civilization, a performance at Jyvaskyla, Finland, 2000.

In addition to creating his own art, Mr. Rahman has also curated several shows and is a part of the curatorial committee of this year’s Dhaka Art Summit. Here he discusses art, curating and the summit.

What schools of art inspires you?From the early stages of my career,

I have believed in experimentation and have explored different materials and techniques. Therefore, any kind of dynamic concept, content and presentation inspires me – whatever locations they are from.

How would you describe your approach to curating the Dhaka Art Summit?

For Dhaka Art Summit, I am curating the Performance Art and

Experimental Film segments. I have been working directly with most of the performance artists, who are relatively familiar to me. However the filmmakers from abroad were unknown to me. I went through lots of references from different exhibitions and organisations to make the final selection. It was challenging for my assistant, Shimul Saha, and I to find experimental filmmakers from South Asia.

How are the experimental films different from mainstream films?

We always see that mainstream films are practiced from a neutral point, even if they are not concept-rich, they usually have mass appeal, and thus they automatically capture the viewers’ attention. These filmmakers are often restricted from expressing their innermost desire. But the experimental filmmakers, since most of them are not dependent on their producers, have a lot of freedom, even the ones who do have producers. That’s why they can take a position. The themes explored at this summit are politics, social issues, and the conflict between society and the individual’s own designs of their systems.

Could you tell us a little about the performance art you are curating?

We will have artists from Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal and India. Unfortunately, our guest from Pakistan fell ill, but the artist’s work will be screened here. It focuses on 1971 from a Pakistani perspective. He conducted his research in

Bangladesh, and has performed in Lahore before where he was almost arrested. It’s this performance that we will be showing at the exhibition.

Do you visit a lot of exhibitions to inspire yourself and become familiar with new curatorial practices?

Yes, I travel frequently and have had opportunity to visit many museums, galleries and festivals in past. I have visited large-scale festivals such as the Lyon Biennale, the Venice Biennale, Documenta festival, the Colombo Biennale and many more. Since Bangladesh does not have proper curators, some of us have to take the responsibility anyway. I got a lot of experience after we founded the Britto Arts Trust in 2002. I have also curated few large scale projects and exhibitions over the years of my artistic journey.

How does the Dhaka Art Summit compare to art fares such as Frieze, ARTHK, Art Stage Singapore etc?

DAS is a festival, where artists, curators, and art connoisseurs can gather and experience the vibrant South Asian Arts scene; there is no profit motive. Usually the fairs you have mentioned are focused on making money and are dominated by galleries. But DAS is providing a platform for individual artists and curators to explore their ideas. There are galleries coming to the Summit as well, but the profit of any sale is not going into the DAS account.

Bangladeshi art is relatively new to

the global market, how should we proceed to make our mark in the international arena?

Festivals such as DAS can be, in many ways, one of the strongest platforms from which to attract global attention, but I think there should be many other avenues of private and Government support to come up with dynamic ideas, if we are to make our art scene effective and contemporaneous in the international arena.

Mahbubur Rahman’s picks

February 7, 5:15pm | “There is Something in the Air” | Iram Ghufran (India)“Very interesting how she deals with the frame, the material, timing and concept.

February 7, 6:15pm | “My Body My Weapon” | Kavita Joshi (India)“Very strong film portraying the crisis in Assam. Very powerful.”

February 8, 6:50pm | “Delete” | Shamim Nizam (Maldives)“In this Shamim performs himself, and brings out the extreme levels of emotions. Very good visualisation of the subconscious mind.”

February 9, 2:35pm | “Siren” | Molla Sagar (Bangladesh)“A film that touches the soul. It shows how industrialisation disconnects independent workers from their roots. As soon as the market demand of a good declines, the factory dissolves. And the movie shows how, with that collapse of the industry, a worker is abandoned by the system.”

February 9, 4:40pm | “Life” | Mohammad Khadem Haidari (Afghanistan)“This film shows the other side of Afghanistan – the one we don’t see. We’re used to hearing about the war and conflict in Afghanistan, but this film shows the beauty of the country.”

Dhaka Tribune’sSohara Mehroze Shachi & Syeda Samira Sadeque speak with the curators of Dhaka Art Summit

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